The present invention relates to an apparatus for the temporary retention of a plurality of skewers, such as a loading apparatus of a skewering machine, the said apparatus comprising:
a body having a plurality of bores passing right through it along respective mutually parallel longitudinal axes and occupying specific relative positions, each of the said bores being capable of receiving a respective skewer with a possibility of relative longitudinal sliding, this skewer being maintained in a longitudinal orientation, PA1 a transverse slide mounted slideably relative to the body in a specific transverse direction and having as many holes as there are bores of the body, the said holes passing right through it along respective mutually parallel longitudinal axes and occupying relative positions identical to the said specific relative positions, each of the said holes being capable of receiving a respective skewer with a possibility of relative longitudinal sliding, in such a way that, as a result of the sliding of the slide in relation to the body in the said transverse direction, the slide can be placed, as desired, in a first position, in which the axes of the holes of the slide coincide with the axes of the bores of the body to allow a free longitudinal passage of the skewers, or in a second position, in which the axes of the holes of the slide are offset transversely a specific way of the said transverse direction in relation to the axes of the bores of the body in order to immobilize the skewers against longitudinal passage.
In a known embodiment marketed by the Applicant, the body has general form of a right-angled parallelpiped comprising two approximately square plane transverse faces connected to one another by means of a longitudinal end face; the slide is mounted slideably relative to the body in the immediate vicinity of one of the transverse faces of the latter, in such a way that each bore of the body is located completely or almost completely on the same side of the slide which, in its second position, possesses facing these bores of the body solid zones intermediate between its holes, in such a way that the skewers introduced into the bores of the body come with one end up against the slide and are maintained in a longitudinal orientation as a result of the interaction of a portion immediately adjacent to this end with the respective bore of the body.
This known embodiment has some disadvantages.
One of these disadvantages is that, in its second position, the slide, although opposing a sliding of the skewers one specific way in a longitudinal direction going from the bore of the body towards the slide, nevertheless does not ensure any retention of the skewers in the opposite way of this longitudinal direction, with the result that, if the apparatus is to be manipulated, it is expedient to make sure that it is oriented in such a way that the transverse face of the body nearest the slide is turned downwards.
Moreover, insofar as the end by which each skewer bears on the slide in a second position is generally a pointed end for the purpose of assisting the subsequent penetration of the skewers into food products to be skewered or into skewering tubes, as described respectively in French Patens No. 2,494,092 and 2,515,023 of the Applicant, this actual bearing and the friction occurring as a result between the skewers and the slide reaching its first position can blunt or curve the points of these skewers, to the extend of impairing their subsequent engagement into the products to be skewered or into the skewering tubes, or even scratch the slide at the risk of producing on it zones difficult to clean, that is to say liable to accommodate bacteria.
To overcome these disadvantages, it was proposed to replace the slide by a diaphragm stationary relative to the body and possessing opposite the bores of the latter holes suitable for allowing the passage of the skewers; but these holes are undersized transversely in relation to the skewers, with the result that they widen when these are engaged in them, and retain them by tending to close on them again as a result of the natural elasticity of the diaphragm.
However, as it is generally known, a diaphragm is vulnerable to tears and to aging, and therefore such an apparatus has only a short lifetime; furthermore, although it is true that it has the advantage of ensuring a retention of the skewers both ways longitudinally, the release of the skewers can be obtained only as a result of a forced push exerted on them by means capable of penetrating into the bores as far as the diaphragm, that is to say by ejection rods, thereby giving rise to a complexity of construction of the machines with which such an apparatus is intended to interact.